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Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Vatican City, 20 January 2016 (VIS) –
In this morning's general audience, held in the Paul VI Hall, the
Holy Father dedicated his catechesis to the Week of Prayer for
Christian unity, taking place this year from 18 to 25 January, on the
theme "Called to proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord".
"The first letter of St. Paul is addressed to the first
generation of Christians to make them aware of the gift received in
Baptism, and the demands that this involves", said the Pope. "We
too, in this Week of Prayer, are invited to rediscover all this, and
to do so together, overcoming our divisions. Sharing Baptism means
that we are all sinners and that we all need to be saved, redeemed,
liberated from evil".

"When we as Christians decide to
share one Baptism, we affirm that we all – Catholics, Protestants
and Orthodox – share the experience of being called from the
unforgiving and alienating darkness, towards the encounter with the
living God, full of mercy. We all, unfortunately, experience
selfishness, which generates division, closed-mindedness, contempt.
Starting over from Baptism means rediscovering the source of mercy,
the source of hope for all, because no-one is excluded from God's
mercy".

"Sharing this grace creates an
indissoluble bond between the Baptised: by virtue of our Baptism we
can consider ourselves brothers", he continued. "We are
truly the holy people of God, even though, as a result of our sins,
we are not yet a fully united people. God's mercy, that works in
Baptism, is stronger than our divisions. To the extent that we
welcome the grace of mercy, we become ever more fully the people of
God, and we also become capable of proclaiming all His wonderful
works, starting from a simple and fraternal witness of unity".

"By the grace of Baptism", he
concluded, "we have obtained God's mercy and we have been
welcomed into His people. We all – Catholics, Orthodox and
Protestants – form a royal priesthood and a holy nation. This means
that we have a common mission, which is that of transmitting the
mercy we have received to others, starting from the poorest and the
abandoned". Pope Francis concluded by urging all disciples of
Christ to "find a way to collaborate together to take the mercy
of the Father to every part of the world".

- appointed Bishop Canisio Klaus of
Santa Cruz do Sul, Brazil, as bishop of Sinop (area 191,000,
population 650,000, Catholics 534,000, priests 52, permanent deacons
2, religious 69), Brazil. He succeeds Bishop Gentil Delazari, whose
resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese upon reaching
the age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.

- erected the Maronite apostolic
exarchate of Bogota, Colombia.

- appointed Fr. Fadi Abou Chebel,
O.M.M., as the first apostolic exarch of the new exarchate of Bogota,
Colombia. The bishop-elect was born in Deir al Qamar, Lebanon in
1969, took his solemn vows in 1994 and was ordained a priest in 1995.
He holds a licentiate in pastoral theology and has served in a number
of pastoral and administrative roles, including deputy priest,
spiritual assistant for young seminarians, general director of the
Notre Dame college of Louaize, university chaplain and general
director of university pastoral ministry in Lebanon.